In a recent prepared statement following an earnings call on Thursday, Ubisoft outlines for investors what the company feels were missteps with their latest major release Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint and the lessons they’ve learned to prevent disappointing debuts in the future. This follows another announcement from Ubisoft that several anticipated games–Watchdogs Legion, Gods and Monsters, and Rainbow Six: Quarantine are being delayed by several months.
In the statement from Ubisoft, CEO Yves Guillemot detailed many of the reasons the company feels the new open-world special operations-based tactical shooter didn’t match its projected sales. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint follows up on 2017’s Ghost Recon Wildlands and moves the series in new but poorly received direction that incorporates survival mechanics and loot grinds that ultimately didn’t impress players.
Guillemot acknowledges that those changes have “been strongly rejected by a significant portion of the community” and that their rejection is reflected in the game’s unfortunate reviews and reception. Guillemot also said that Ubisoft feels that overall, Ghost Recon Breakpoint didn’t prove special enough to distinguish it from similar games available on the market today. For Ubisoft, Breakpoint “did not come in with enough differentiation factors” and the statement adds that this underperformance was a major deciding factor in the choice to delay Ubisoft’s upcoming projects.
Responding to investor concerns that players were becoming worn out and averse to live-service style gaming and an overabundance on monetization strategies, Ubisoft doubled down on asserting that the company is not interested in pursuing pay-to-win microtransactions in their titles. Ghost Recon Breakpoint did launch with Time-Saver bundle, purchasable with real-world currency, that offered significant boots to the purchasing player. Ubisoft issued a statement that the advantage-granting items in the Time-Saver bundle were listed in their store due to an error, and they have been removed “for now.” Cosmetics are still available for purchase.
Ubisoft’s intention is to set their focus on in-game events for the future of Ghost Recon Breakpoint, as well as space out future releases with “more development time to ensure that their respective innovations are perfectly implemented so as to deliver optimal experiences for players.” Ubisoft released seven games in 2019.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.